1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to musical instrument strings and particularly to through the treatment of cryogenic thermal cycling process
This method for the manufacture of musical instrument strings addresses extended useful life of said strings and improvement of it's tonality through the application of both the treatment of the Cryogenic Thermal Cycling Process*, (* henceforth known as: CTCP), in addition to specially formulated coatings.
Conventionally, musicians have to deal with both the short optimal tonal life of their strings, as well as string breakage at inopportune moments such as during live performance. The major causes of these problems being the friction at point of string contact on the instrument body, “wear and tear” of the string through both vibrations and tensile changes from both playing and tuning, degradation in quality from environmental factors such as moisture, (including perspiration from digits of the player as well as ambient moisture or humidity) and oxidation, and normal deviations from structural perfection inherent in manufacturing of any similar metal product; such as microscopic “hills and valleys”, micro cracks or other such imperfections that increase friction and/or string breakage. All factors combine to the dwindling of the useful life of the string.
Although various products have been introduced throughout the years to address some of these issues, no one has been successful in addressing them all, as well as simultaneously improving upon tonality. Using the guitar as an example; please note the following.
Stringed instruments all need the string to come into contact with the instrument body in order to transmit the vibrations created by various methods of plucking the string in order to create the sound finally audible to the human ear. It is at these points that the stresses invariably produced in the movement created by the plucking occur, and begin they incur on the useful life of the string.
The point of contact on a guitar is known as a “saddle”. Conventionally manufactured of metal, such as pressed steel, brass, or stainless steel, each string has to bend at this point of contact. Although new developments such as “rollers”, (primarily a tuning aid), or saddles coated with various lubricants have come forth in the market place, they have offered minimal, if any change in the length of useful string life. One manufacturer, Fender, attempted to create a stronger musical string by applying a wrapping that acted to improve tensile strength and relieve occasion of breakage by applying yet another substance wound around a “normal” string. Unfortunately it was found to “deaden ” the tone to such an extent as to be deemed unworthy of production. Some require excessive work in time and cost, or modification to the instrument to attach to the instrument body prior to use. None show appreciable progress in lessening occasions of string breakage, let alone improvement of sound or tonal qualities.
Furthermore, the average guitar string, as manufactured today, is subject to all problems existent in any product whose main component is a metal with tensile properties. There are microscopic pits and indentations as well as micro cracks, as mentioned above. Although invisible to the naked eye, in most cases, as a string is placed under increasing tensile pressure, these minor deformities become a major source of increased friction or may cause micro cracks to increase in size or severity.
2. Prior Art
U.S. Pat. No. 4,539,228 The microscopic pores, cavities, and crevices of the strings and the interstices of a wound string are filled with dry film lubricant particles using a moisture displacing agent and rust inhibitor as a carrier for the dry lubricant. This provides lubrication and inhibits corrosion, thus shortening initial break in periods and extending string life. Our invention uses cryogenic thermal cycling to obtain the enhanced properties of inhibiting corrosion and extending tonality and durability of the said string. In addition, the use of the coating process in our invention is applied only at the point where the strings rest over a device known as the “saddle” durability reasons. Our process involves spraying and baking the coatings at 350° F. for 10 minutes, the above patent soaks their strings to allow the coating of choice to penetrate the micro cracks of the string.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,960,027—This patent is not for a string, or string enhancement, rather a saddle/bridge enhancement which the claims lead to string durability or less breakage. This is relative to the coating portion of our invention. This patent discusses the use of dry film lubricants to change the surface of the substrate of the saddle/bridge of the guitar, not the string as with our invention. Our patent is the opposite premise, the strings is coated with the dry film lubricant material at the point of contact between the string and saddle.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,801,319—This patent's claims center around coatings being used to counteract corrosion and obtaining an ease of playing, better tonality and intonation. Our invention uses cryogenic thermal cycling to obtain enhanced corrosive properties, tonality and durability. This patent does not make durability claims with the use of their coating process. This patent's claims refer to coating the entire string with a tube and various coatings to achieve their claims, our invention using cryogenic thermal cycling changes the molecular structure of the metal, without coating the entire string, to achieve the results of our claims. Our coating process concentrates coating with our spraying/curing method at the point of contact where the string rests on the device known as the “saddle”, whereas this patent coats the entire string. Our invention uses coating on all 6 strings, both wound and unwound, whereas this patent coats only the wound strings. Between the two inventions, there are different application methods and material choices that set our patents apart.
FIG. 1 illustrates a conventional classical guitar 10. Conventional classical guitars include a “fret” or “fingering board” 12, across which multiple strings, 14a, 14b, 14c, 16a, 16b, and 16c, are strung and against which the strings are pressed to form different notes as the strings are picked or plucked. A typical classical guitar includes three relatively “high” note (or “treble”) strings, 14a, 14b, 14c, and three relatively “low” note (or “bass”) strings, 16a, 16b, 16c. The strings are strung from the bridge 11 along the fretboard to the tuning keys 13. High note strings 14a/b/c are generally formed from a straight “nonwound” material, such as gut, synthetic material, or metal, as the core 21 is seen in FIG. 2. Low note strings 16a/b/c are often formed from a wound string, and FIG. 2 shows a metal core having a wire winding, three such turns (21a/b/c) being shown in FIG. 2.